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The shadow war between Israel and Iran in Syria escalated sharply on Monday after suspected Israeli strikes killed 26 Iranian and Assad regime fighters, according to monitors.

One strike tore through a military base dug into a mountain near the central city of Hama on Sunday night, causing an explosion so large it registered as a 2.6 magnitude earthquake. A second strike targeted an airbase near the northern city of Aleppo.

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack but suspicion immediately fell on Israel, which has carried out a number of strikes as it tries to prevent Iran from building up a military presence in Syria and transferring weapons to Hizbollah, the Lebanese military group.

Israel’s military declined to comment, as it usually does on operations in Syria. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, convened an emergency meeting of his security cabinet on Monday.

Ministers discussed are believed to have discussed the strikes and Mr Netanyahu's plans to make a speech on "significant development" related to the Iran nuclear deal.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that 26 people were killed in the strike in Hama and that the “vast majority” of the casualties were Iranians. Iranian media initially reported that 18 Iranians had been killed in the strike but later retracted the claim.

Later, Iranian officials denied that any of their forces had been killed. “All these reports over attack on an Iranian military base in Syria and the martyrdom of several Iranian military advisers in Syria are baseless,” an Iranian official told the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

The strikes came three weeks after another suspected Israeli attack on the T4 airbase in central Syria, which Iran said left seven of its soldiers dead. Iran vowed revenge for the attack and Israel’s forces have been on high alert for potential retaliation.

Israel’s increasingly bold strikes against Iranian targets deep inside Syria - and Iran’s angry threats in response - have raised fears that the two sides may be heading for a full-blown war, which could potentially also involve Iran’s allies in Hizbollah and the Assad regime.

The main target of the strike was an underground facility built into Mount Taqsis in Hama. The base is believed to be a military site where the Syrian regime developed ballistic missiles with help from North Korea. More recently, Iranian forces are alleged to have operated from the base.

Israel has carried out regular strikes in Syria as it tries to prevent Iran from building up its military presenceCredit:
REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo

The site was hit around 10.30pm on Thursday and video footage showed a vast explosion rising into the night sky as munitions exploded inside the base. The unknown person who filmed the video gasped audibly as the flames rose.

The strikes caused subsequent explosions so large that the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre recorded tremors equivalent to a 2.6 magnitude earthquake in central Syria.

Michael Horowitz, a senior analyst at the Le Beck geopolitical consultancy, said the strikes were deeper into Syria than Israeli forces usually venture and that the attack in Hama appeared to involve massive weaponry to penetrate the mountainside.

“The context is very important because we are a few weeks away from the possible collapse of the Iran nuclear agreement and the possibility that Iran will resume its nuclear programme. I think this strikes sends a message to Iran that Israel can strike these underground facilities,” Mr Horowitz said.

Israel has been appealing for months to both Russia and the US to use their influence to rein in Iran’s military build up in Syria. So far, its diplomatic efforts have yielded little success.

In the absence of a diplomatic breakthrough, Israel has carried out increasingly regular strikes inside Syria in the hope of “raising the cost” for Iran and potentially convincing Russia that its own interests in Syria would be damaged by heightened Israeli-Iranian conflict.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, said Monday that the US was trying to push Saudi Arabia into war with Iran. "Americans are trying to provoke Saudi Arabia against Tehran,” he said. “Their aim is to create more regional crisis.”

His comments came after Mike Pompeo, the new US secretary of state, visited Saudi Arabia and Israel, promising to take hardline against Iran during both stops.